FEBRUARY 21, (THEWILL) – Billionaire businessman and chairman, Heirs Holdings Group, Tony Elumelu, has advised officials charged with the responsibility of managing the state-owned assets to imbibe the culture of efficiency through a defined vision in order to achieve the desired objectives.
Elumelu offered the advice at the Public Wealth Management Conference organised by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) in Abuja on Tuesday where he was the guest speaker.
Drawing inferences from successful public and private sector enterprises both outside and within Nigeria, Elumelu stressed that those saddled with the task of managing state-owned assets must be clear with their focus and imbibe the culture of efficiency to succeed.
According to him, there must be no room to entertain the expectations of quick returns which kills the culture of efficiency in the management of assets.
“There is no rush to see immediate pfofits, we must have that mindset if we are to fully unlock the value contained within these state-owned assets,” he said.
He referred to the success stories of TEMASEX in Singapore which started out in 1974 with the same aspirations as MOFI and is today worth $300 billion years after it was established with mere $300 million.
“The turnaround of a defunct Crystal Bank, birthed into Standard Trust Bank, which is now part of today’s United Bank for Africa (UBA).
“This was not a state-owned enterprise but the same principles for turnaround occurred here.
“We had a clear vision from day one of what we wanted to achieve in the financial services industry.”
He said the success story of the Transcorp Group and its hospitality and power subsidiaries was possible because the company did not fail to identify its vision and followed it with efficient management practices.
He advised the government officials to embrace the key success factors which include building leadership capacity, creating a high-performance environment, imbibing the culture of excellence and good governance, as well as embracing risk management while ensuring there is non-interference in management.
“I think that MOFI should be saluted for setting out these goals, for looking widely for models and approaches – and for bringing a private sector mindset to the stewardship of public assets.
“First of all, setting the strategic intent of the institution is critical.
“Decide early – what kind of institution should we intend to be?
“For me, this has to be one that is long-term in thinking, one that values excellence in all areas, and is strong on corporate governance. The focus on execution, execution, execution – and rewards!”, he said.
The event which was declared open by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, had as its theme, “Championing Nigeria’s Economic Prospierity”.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
